See?” Trip said when we got outside. “Grown-ups love me.” He pointed to himself. “Perfect Boy.”
“Oh, please. She’s just tired from a hard day’s work. She’s delirious from the hair spray fumes. She’s dazzled by that crazy cookie, wrapped up like Christmas morning. She never lets me out of her sight.”
“But seriously, you’re lucky you have a sister like DiDi,” he said. “I don’t have anyone.”
“DiDi?” I thought about her. She was just, well, DiDi. “The thing is…”
“What?” Trip said. “What are you thinking?”
Do people really ask that? DiDi never asks about feelings that much. We’re just always so busy trying to figure out my next steps.
“It’s just that…” I looked at the ground. Then up into Trip’s eyes. “DiDi never even finished school. She had to drop out and work. And even before that, it’s not like she was the—the smartest. I guess I’m lucky because if I didn’t have DiDi, I’d be all alone, but we’re just so different. She has all these yakkity ideas, and there’s just so much she doesn’t know and… and that’s what I’m thinking.”
We walked along quietly for a bit.
“Was that… weird to tell me all that personal stuff about your sister?”
I thought about it. Then I told him the truth.
“No. But only because it never feels weird telling you anything.”
Trip looked at me for a long time and then nodded.